Of whiskers and blood: how mild sensory stimulation completely protects the cortex from an impending ischemic stroke

Stroke is a leading cause of death and long-term disability. In this talk, I will describe how a mild sensory stimulation (e.g., single whisker, tone) delivered to a rodent model of ischemic stroke (permanent occlusion of a major artery supplying blood to the cortex) can completely protect the cortex from an impending stroke.  The mechanism underlying this surprising protection was revealed to be a new type of activity-dependent neurovascular plasticity. These findings will be presented in the context of our new understanding regarding the very large spread of evoked activity in sensory cortex supported by an underlying network of extremely long-range horizontal projections.